Why West Bengal Census has kicked off under NRC cloud

A set of contentious questions, coupled with Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari's remarks linking the exercise to people excluded from the electoral rolls, has cast a National Register of Citizens (NRC) shadow over West Bengal's ongoing census.

The state began its door-to-door enumeration exercise on August 16, barely months after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

Also read: Phase 2 of Census: Centre sets 40 questions; caste, COVID details to be sought

Adhikari recently drew a connection between the two exercises. Referring to around 27 lakh names deleted from the electoral rolls after the SIR’s adjudication process, he said, “I cannot say at this stage what their (those whose names were deleted) status will be. Of the 27 lakh names deleted after adjudication, only 7 lakh have filed appeals. It remains to be seen whether those who did not claim voter status will now claim citizenship. Once the self-enumeration process and the door-to-door survey are complete, we will assess the data and then be able to say something.”

The remarks were significant because Census authorities have maintained that the exercise has no connection with the electoral rolls and that every person present in India, including foreign nationals, will be counted regardless of citizenship status.

Civil society groups raise questions

The disconnect between the official position and the chief minister’s remarks has raised questions among civil society groups about how the census data could eventually be used.

Also read: Census 2027: Online self-enumeration starts in West Bengal; here’s how to fill

“His claim that only 7 lakh people filed appeals is misleading. Moreover, on what basis can he say that the government will assess the census data? Under the law, census data cannot be used for any other purpose. Clearly, the current exercise is more than just a headcount,” said Ranjit Sur of the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR).

The APDR will convene a workshop in Kolkata on August 25 to scrutinise the ongoing census exercise and discuss its implications.

Record self-enumerations

The high response to online self-enumeration has also emerged as a significant feature in Bengal. By the end of the self-enumeration period, 53,13,589 households in the state had completed the process.

The state government said Bengal recorded the highest number of completed self-enumerations in India. With the state estimated to have around two crore households, the completed submissions represented roughly one-quarter of all households.

Malda and North 24 Parganas were among the better-performing districts.

Sur said the unusually high participation reflected concerns among sections of the population about the possible use of census data for purposes beyond population enumeration.

Also read: Data glitches, outdated maps: Why India’s census is stumbling on the ground

“The high self-enumeration trend in West Bengal, compared with other states, reflects the concern and apprehension that the census could ultimately also be linked with citizenship through the backdoor, as was the case with the SIR,” Sur said. “Many citizens in Bengal are already being deprived of rations, admission to universities and other benefits because their names are not in the SIR.”

40 questions in Census 2027

His interpretation comes against the backdrop of the questions being asked in the population-enumeration phase of Census 2027.

The Registrar General of India has notified 40 questions for this phase. Fourteen are new or modified compared with the 2011 census. They include questions on nationality, details of a person's father and mother, caste and migration, besides the availability of Aadhaar, voter ID, passport and driving licence.

More significantly, eight of these new or modified questions also appeared in the National Population Register (NPR) schedule notified in 2020. They include nationality, parental details, mobile number, Aadhaar, voter ID, passport and driving licence.

“The overlap is significant because the NPR had become one of the most contentious elements of the government’s citizenship policy after the Citizenship Amendment Act was passed in 2019. Opposition parties and civil society groups had feared that the NPR could eventually lead to a nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC),” said Biplab Bhattacharya of Jana Andolan, a civil society platform working for citizenship rights that was particularly active during the anti-NRC and SIR protests in the state.

No nationwide NRC

The NPR exercise was subsequently postponed during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The government has not announced a nationwide NRC nor has it issued a fresh notification for updating the NPR alongside the current census,” said an official privy to the exercise in the state.

“The census questionnaire does not ask people to prove their citizenship. It records information largely through self-declaration, and a census enumerator is not being asked to determine whether a respondent is an Indian citizen,” the official added.

At the same time, several questions go beyond the conventional demographic information collected in earlier censuses. Respondents will be asked about their nationality, parents, migration history and possession of Aadhaar, voter ID, passport or driving licence.

Controversial NPR questions

Some of these questions, including those on parental details and identity documents, featured in the 2020 NPR schedule.

The most controversial NPR questions related to the dates and places of birth of parents.

“The questions had raised concerns that the NPR could eventually facilitate a citizenship verification exercise,” Bhattacharya said.

The NPR is regulated by the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003. The rules provide for preparation of a Population Register and envisage verification of that register for preparing an NRC.

The present census questionnaire, it is true, does not activate that process. There is no notified nationwide NRC. Yet the timing of the exercise has added to the political sensitivity surrounding questions of citizenship in Bengal.

The state has just gone through an unusually intense revision of its electoral rolls.

‘SIR exclusions back in focus’

The SIR exercise generated a prolonged political and legal dispute over documents, ancestry and eligibility to remain a voter. Lakhs of names were placed under scrutiny, while a substantial number were eventually removed after adjudication.

“Adhikari’s remarks have now brought those exclusions into focus in the census exercise. His suggestion that those who did not claim voter status during SIR could now claim citizenship through the census has blurred the political boundary between two exercises that officials insist are separate,” said political commentator Sukharanjan Dasgupta.

The political backdrop is also important. The BJP government has made illegal immigration and demographic change central political issues, while Adhikari has himself linked the census with the citizenship status of people whose names were removed from the electoral rolls, Dasgupta added.